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CENTRAL, S.C. -- Arguably the most recognizable figure in the history of Clemson Football guided the program to its first and only national championship in 1981.

It was here where 33-year old Danny Ford reached the pinnacle of college football. And it was here where Clemson emerged as the one, true oasis for serious football in the Atlantic Coast Conference. From 1981-83, Clemson posted a 30-2-2 mark, the best record in college football. Ford compiled a 96-29-4 mark, which included of course the national championship, five conference titles, and bowl victories over Ohio State, Nebraska, Penn State, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Stanford.

But it was also here where the NCAA uncovered a beehive of missteps, with many recruiting violations dating back to the Charley Pell Era in 1977-78, though the NCAA would again begin investigating the football program in 1989, later revealing its findings in 1990 that a coach and a booster gave cash to players from 1985-87. As a result, Clemson was again placed on probation in June of 1990, the second time in eight years.

Ford, still the youngest head coach in NCAA history to win a national title, would watch his tenure come to an abrupt end in January of 1990, after receiving a termination letter from then athletics director Bobby Robinson following an 'agreement' on the grounds of 'philosophical differences' with then university president Max Lennon.

In late May of 2011, I met with Ford for a three hour, exclusive interview where one more time the former National Coach of the Year placed himself back in the head coaching position at Clemson to relive his decade-long run as the program's front man.

PUBLISHER's NOTE: Five years ago when I met with Clemson's former head coaches, the last interview to take place was Ford. He had been really busy on his farm and was also in the middle of a couple of events that involved former players. One of the things I always admired about Coach Ford was his accessibility to his former players. It was after an event in Greenville where we decided to get together for nearly three hours.

I arrived at the hotel in the Upstate where the interview was to take place roughly 10 minutes prior to our scheduled meeting. The Tigers' legendary coach was already there. Ford, as usual, had already made himself at home and was just sitting on a couch reading a newspaper. Before I could put my notes and recorder down on a table, the coach had already reached out his hand. I shook his hand and it was obvious right away this was a coach who was used to hard, manual labor on his farm.

Growing up in the town of Cheraw, SC, I had always admired Ford. His 1981 Clemson team facing Nebraska in the National Championship Game was the first college football game I ever saw. I thought this was a coach who said a lot even when he said very little. Our family purchased our first VCR in 1986 and I remember recording his Sunday coaches shows. It gave me a window into how he viewed film, what he looked for in the game of football and how he critiqued performance. When he said something more than once in on-air evaluation, I could tell it was important to him. Even when he didn't really say much, you thought he did.

But that was many years ago. Now it was time to go to work. There were questions to be asked, some of which I knew Ford didn't want to answer.

For example, in this extensive four-part series, you will see certain questions appear in parts two and three, questions that were actually asked in the final minutes of the interview. One question in particular was my asking Ford this:

There were allegations of your coaches offering cash and benefits to prospects, then benefits provided for student-athletes. In the NCAA's findings, it was documented that they felt there was a pattern of improper recruiting activities, which in part led to the sanctions in 1982. How could the recruiting coordinator not know about these things? And how could the head coach not know about these things?

When I asked the question, Ford, still very much an imposing figure, just stared at me for a few seconds. I could tell right away he didn't like the question. Here I am thinking one of two things are about to happen. Either the most recognizable figure in Clemson history is about to deck me or he's going to get up and walk out of the interview. I deliberately waited until the final minutes of the interview to ask the question for this very reason. Ford, though, did indeed answer the question.

As he began talking about the NCAA probe from 1982, I could see he was getting a little frustrated, not only in discussing something that put a black mark on the program but also due to the manner in which it was handled by both the NCAA and the ACC, which levied its own sanctions against Clemson. Ford had gotten so frustrated back in 1982 when two NCAA investigators descended on Clemson one day, he told them he was about to go fishing when they wanted to question him. Ford cooperated with their questioning, of course. He simply put them in a boat with him and the three went fishing. That's essentially where he was personally interviewed by the NCAA's investigators.

There were other topics I felt needed to be discussed, such as his relationship with longtime UGA head coach and rival Vince Dooley, whether he felt Dooley had turned Clemson into the NCAA, Herschel Walker's recruitment, his relationship with South Carolina head coach Joe Morrison and a private meeting between the two days before Morrison died, his public chiding of Clemson's administration before his eventual dismissal in 1990, the termination letter he received from then athletics director Bobby Robinson, his relationship with then President Max Lennon, Ford's return to Clemson's campus where he spent time in his office at 1 a.m. the day before his departure was announced and so much more.

I wasn't sure how he would react to any of the aforementioned questions, but he was surprisingly candid. And for that reason, we have another window into Clemson's past, with additional clarity, finally.

This is Danny Ford, in his own words.

This is his story.

PART III

Ard. From 1981-83, you were 30-2-2. That was the best record in college football. You were fighting probation in recruiting, but you were still a national power, finishing 9-1-1 with a #8 ranking in 1982 and 9-1-1 with a #11 ranking in 1983. The fact that you were still winning on the field during a dark time, how much of a source of encouragement was that for you?

Ford. "There was a time in my life - for whatever reason - from 1982 to a few years later where I just don't remember a whole lot. The only game from 1982 I remember was the Georgia game. We played in Athens. They blocked a punt and beat us 13-7. It was such a long day, everybody had been celebrating. The stadium was a mess because they drank all day and they were ugly. It was just a bad deal. We had a chance to beat them and they beat us on a blocked punt.

"But those years, it's like I was somewhere else. Those years, almost until I was nearly 40, I just don't remember a lot."

Ard. Was it because part of you wanted to forget some things that had happened in your program?

Ford. "I don't know if I'd say forget would be it. I was just trying to outwork it, I was trying to get ahead and trying to keep winning. I just don't remember a lot. That's just one part of my life that I remember very little about. It's not like I had gone crazy or that I wasn't trying to accept facts. It has nothing to do with that."

Ard. You later said publicly several times - referring to the NCAA sanctions - that there were certainly mistakes made under your watch.

Ford. "We did. We did some things there that we admitted to. But it was nothing like what people think. But here again, I'm not here to convince people of that. I know what happened. I know what we did.

"It's just that if it wasn't something here, then it was something over there. You have changes in administration or changes in athletics directors or on your staff, plus you're still trying to push forward. But again, I just don't remember a lot from that period."

Ard. I have been told that following the program getting hit with probation, there was a meeting internally to re-evaluate your recruiting mail-outs and it was at this time where a lot of different pieces of mail were sent out, some things you had not done before, some mail-outs possibly elaborate in nature. The NCAA later implemented some rules on what college football programs could mail out to recruits in part because of this.

Ford. "I remember that. Everything we couldn't do, we'd go here or there and try to find a different way to do it. It wasn't breaking a rule. But if someone else was sending out two mailings a week and they were on television and we were at that disadvantage, then we were going to send out mailings everyday. It was going to cost us more money, but the athletics department went along with it. Shoot, a prospect everyday is pulling mail out of his mailbox then and we're not on television, but it was a way to keep Clemson right in front of his eyes because he'd get mail from us everyday. You're there all the time. That was us thinking, other people and their ideas. The athletics department said, 'What do you need?' And we told them."

Ard. Did you seek out any advisement from coach Bear Bryant when you found out you'd be on probation? He was a coach who had run-ins with the NCAA as well and was someone you'd looked up to. Was there any correspondence there during this period?

Ford. "No. You just didn't call up coach Bryant. I don't know many other people who just called him up."

Ard. Why not?

Ford. "You just didn't. You respected him too much. You were in awe of him too much. No, I never did that.

"Now, I called him one time in my life (when I got into coaching) that I remember. Someone had called me and left a message and said this was coach Bryant. I called him one morning and got him out of the shower and said, 'Coach, this is Danny Ford. I got your call. Did you need to talk to me?' And he said, 'No, I haven't called you.' I said, 'Oh my God. Who in the hell did this to me? Who played this trick on me?' So I said that'll never happen again in my lifetime.

Ard. Let's now jump to 1983. At this stage you've got some new coaches on your staff I want to talk about. Don Wade from Tennessee Tech, a young coach from Appalachian State named Tommy West, and then 33-year old Woody McCorvey from Alabama A&M. First of all, West; talk about him.

Ford. "He was a good coach, he was a good recruiter and I felt like he fit into our staff. He really did a good job for us."

Ard. And McCorvey?

Ford. (Smiling) "He came up to interview, wearing that brown suit. We liked him immediately. I think coach Reedy was in there when we interviewed him. Woody was all dressed up. But Woody was always dressed nice and still does dress a lot nicer than a lot of people. He was neat, well-organized. He's solid as he can be. He was as fine a hire as I ever made. Woody was as fine a person as I ever hired. And still a great, great friend today. I could call on Woody to do anything for me and he could call on me to do anything for him, as well."

Ard. Coach Bryant passes away in 1983, weeks after coaching his last game. What do you remember about that and what kind of impact did it have on you?

Ford. "I was up in North Caroilna in a kid's home, recruiting. I told the people there in the home that I had to leave. I left and went straight back. It just affected me to the point where I felt like I needed to leave. I was going to fly down there to the funeral, but there was bad weather that particular day. But we went down, went to the grave site and went to the reception downtown at the Hyatt. People were lined up and down the highway. I didn't get to see that or the funeral, but I was there for the church visit and briefly talked to Mrs. Bryant.

"You don't think it could happen but it did. Someone like that was bigger than life, you think, but they're not. That was a tough, tough day.

"When Nelson (Stokley) died that was a tough day, too. I met Chuck and Miles Aldrdige down there outside of Atlanta and we drove to his funeral. The funeral was tough. But you see his ex-players and family and they want to hear stories, then your mood changes a little bit. That started healing some things."

Ard. We're in September of 1983 now and it was here where the North Upper Deck in Death Valley is used for the first time. I know Death Valley was the first stadium in the South to have luxury box suites. What do you remember about this?

Ford. "That's where Bill McLellan was way ahead of his time. When we first got to Clemson, they had the old white pressbox. But they started building the upper deck and they worked through the night before we opened up for a game. Some of it they had to put boards in so people could walk on just to get into a certain part of the stadium. Right after we built that we started looking at building the other side. I was thinking, 'What are we going to do? We just built the other one. How are we going to pay for all this?' But interest was terribly high. So they built the boxes and that helped. Bill McLellan did such a great job. He was truly ahead of his time.

"Auburn came up here that summer and they were going to put box suites in their stadium. They came up and made their brochure out of what we had, so they just put their emblems on our suites. They sold our suites to their people."

Ard. I wanted to mention this earlier, so let me backtrack for a moment. I want to talk about Jim Carlen, who was the head football coach at South Carolina from 1975-1981. What was your relationship with him like?

Ford. "Not good when we played. We were always competing. But he's a special friend of mine now. When a job came up (in the 1990s), he'd say he'd try to help me. I don't know ... he might not have. He might have tried to hurt me. (smiling; joking). He would say, 'Danny, I'm going to help you.' I said, 'That's alright coach.' (laughing) He's a lot different. You find that out when you're not playing someone. He's really a good guy.

"I never wanted to be friends with coaches (who were competing against me). But I was friends with the basketball coaches in the ACC. Lefty (Driesell) is a good friend of mine, Terry Holland is a good friend of mine."

Ard. How about Dean Smith?

Ford. "No, he's the only one we didn't fool around with, him and Jim Valvano."

Ard. Why not?

Ford. "He'd want all them (other head basketball coaches) to meet at the ACC meetings, but I'd take them fishing. All the football coaches would play golf. But I'd go with the basketball coaches. One day we missed a meeting because we were catching so many fish. They were like, 'Oh ... Dean is going to be mad at us.' I said, 'He can't do anything to y'all.'

"I didn't want to be with football coaches. I didn't want to hang out with a football coach. I mean, they're friends, but they were going to try to beat me and I was going to try to beat them. And one of us was going to lose our job. I didn't want to be associated with them (at those events)."

Ard. You talked about Carlen earlier. I want to talk about Joe Morrison, who was South Carolina's head coach through the 1988 season. What was your relationship with him like?

Ford. "OK. I do remember one day, not too long before he died, I was in Columbia. I rode by their stadium. I walked in there and sat down there in his office and visited with him. He was going through a bunch of stuff, some things with the NCAA, and I knew how that could be, so we talked. We sat and talked for a while. It was a good visit. We drank some beer together. He had some beer down there in his office. I thought that was neat. I hadn't thought of (having that in my office).

"I went to his funeral (February of 1989). I thought he did a good job for South Carolina, bringing their program back."

Ard. When you recruited against Carlen and Morrison, especially in-state, what were some advantages you tried to sell?

Ford. "They weren't in a conference, so they couldn't play for a conference championship. You'd have to drive to practice or ride the bus to practice. You couldn't walk to practice. It wasn't a college atmosphere. We tried to sell what we had ... a closed-in campus, a college atmosphere. Anything we had that they didn't have, we'd try to sell."

Ard. What do you think they tried to use against you the most?

Ford. "They used to say, 'How do you find Clemson? You go West until you smell it, you go East until you step in it and then you know you're in Clemson.' They used a lot of that ... a country college and things like that."

Ard. You finish 9-1-1 and #8 in 1982, 9-1-1 and #11 in 1983, the program slides back to 7-4 in 1984 and then to 6-6 in 1985. The prevailing feeling in the Clemson community at this time was that you had taken a hit obviously due to probation, you had absorbed the blow, but that you were about to build back. The scholarship cap from 1977-1991 was 95. Were there other factors outside of the lack of volume of scholarships during that period that contributed to the fall-off on the field?

Ford. "Mainly scholarship numbers, and we were not on television. We just didn't have our (normal) numbers. Some kids wanted to be on television. We had to red-shirt some kids, too, to catch back up on numbers, so that's what we did.

"I remember like it was yesterday. I said, 'You better get us now because we're young and we're not going to be here (on probation) for long."

Ard. We're going into 1986 now. McLellan has left and the administration promotes Bobby Robinson to the position of athletics director. At that time, what did you think of Robinson?

Ford. "Bobby had worked for Bill. He was kind of a pencil guy. He was really good at what he did. He saved Bill a lot of time. He helped Bill a lot. Dean Cox had become the interim president. Cliff Ellis was the head basketball coach. I remember Dean Cox coming to myself and Cliff. He asked us what we thought about Bobby Robinson and would we want him as the athletics director. Cliff and I, it was our opinion that instead of bringing in someone from outside, it was best to have someone who knew something about Clemson. I really think if Cliff and I had said no, I don't think Bobby Robinson would have ever been the athletics director. And I don't mean that in a negative way. But Dean Cox didn't come to us and ask us our opinion on something like that for our health. I know that both Ellis and myself felt it would be to our advantage if we stayed with people that were already there rather than go out of house and get someone else. We endorsed it. We both endorsed (Robinson)."